New Defender's Study Bible Notes

5:19wickedness. “Wickedness” here is explicitly referring to “that wicked one” of the previous verse. Satan indeed is now “the god of this world” (II Corinthians 4:4), the one “which deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). We, however, “are of God” and certainly should not be pandering to the world system, as so many evangelicals today are wont to do.